Cheezy Post - Engagement Edition

Did you know Rick is an artist? Cause he is. Artist, musician, photographer, folder of the laundry, the man does it all.

When Rick and I were dating he found out that my middle name is Nicole and he started calling me "Nikki". When he was bored he would write me notes and he would always write "Nikki" at the top of the page in graffiti.

Fast forward to March 14, 2009. I knew that day was going to be the day Rick was going to propose. I knew because I kept asking(begging?) him to tell me when he was going to do it. Romantic, I know. He gave me a time frame and said that the proposal was going to be sometime in a 2 week period, and March 14 was the last day of that time frame. Luckily I'm super good at math and was able to figure it out. I was anxious all day. All freaking day. I hung out with Lacey to try to calm my nerves. Rick would say "okay be ready at 5" then 5 would come and he's say "be ready at 6" etc etc. Lacey and I went for pedicures and then headed back to her house. I hung out with Lacey and Jake until somewhere close to 9 pm. It's a miracle I made it that long. While we were patiently waiting there was a knock at the door. Jake opened the door and there was a piece of paper. It was a note from Rick. He was sending me on a scavenger hunt. Which I later learned was actually just to buy him more time because he still wasn't done and he knew I was about to have a heart attack. It made sense after he told me that because the scavenger hunt alone was pretty subpar.

He told me to bring Lacey and Jake. He told us to go to the store and buy my favorite chocolates. And then we did and we waited in Lacey and Jake's jeep wondering what was next. I'm still not quite sure how we messed that step up. As the hunt was slowly but surely falling apart Rick ended up texting Lacey instead and our next step was to go to Rick's house and blindfold me. Check. So then Rick is texting Lacey and we start driving. Since I know Provo pretty well I was able to focus and figure out where we were going. Maybe I'm related to Magellan? Who knows. We ended up at my church. And then it went quiet. This was the moment where I was ready to jump out of the jeep and take the blindfold off and be engaged. But instead Rick handed Lacey a note that said to drive around until Rick texted them to come back because he still wasn't ready.

Are you kidding?

So Jake, being the master of the jeep that he is, went off-roading. Sounds fun? Not really when you're blindfolded and not sure what's going on. Good thing I trust Jake's driving because off-roading while not being able to see is a pretty crazy feeling. Try it sometime. I want to say we were doing that for about 30 minutes. Maybe that is a total exaggeration, but I actually think that's close to how long it was. Lacey got a text from Rick and it was a riddle for me to figure out where to meet him. The answer to the riddle was the train yard. Odd? Not really. Seriously the guy loves trains. Because we had been off roading for so long I had no sense of direction. Like Dory from Finding Nemo but less funny and more anxious. We didn't drive for very long before we stopped and I had Lacey be my eyes as she led to a place that I knew wasn't the train yard (because we were inside) but I had no idea where we were. She sat me down in a chair, told me to count to 30, and when I was done counting I needed to take off my blindfold and press the space bar. Confused? So was I. Don't worry it gets better. I did what she told me to do and when I took off my blindfold this is what I saw.

Rick had set this up to look like one of the many "Nikki" notes he gave me, with the big graffiti Nikki on the top and the note in the bottom. The writing on the sides are notes from my family and my closest friends. The middle section served as a big tv screen. This is where the "press the space bar" talk came into play. I hit the space bar (actually I hit something else and it wouldn't work, don't worry, Rick fixed it) and a movie began to play. It was a slideshow with pictures of us, narrated by Rick, and he was telling the story of how we met and fell in love. Are you crying yet? Cause I am. As the movie was wrapping up a song started to play, and Rick came out of nowhere (he was hiding in the closet behind me) and he took my hands and stood me up. He said words, and I honestly do not remember them. He cried, I cried, and he got down on one knee, pulled out a ring, and asked me to be his wife. I said yes. Then he got back up and as the song was still playing he asked me to dance with him. We danced as we cried, laughed, I-love-you'd, and oh-my-gosh!'d and even though I was feeling so happy and excited I remember having an overwhelming feeling of peace and calm come over me. It was so perfect. Everything I ever needed in my life was holding my hands crying like a little girl and stepping on my freshly pedicured toes.

Rick is so creative and so thoughtful. He puts time and effort into gifts and makes them personal. I've never met someone with such a creative mind or a beautiful way of thinking. He wants all of his gifts to be personal and unique, much like the proposal. Same with my wedding ring. Rick was engaged once before and it didn't work out. He wasn't able to get money back for the ring that he bought so instead he traded the ring in for a diamond that they placed on a thin band for him. He told himself that when he got married he would put that diamond on his wife's ring. Rick traveled a lot after his first engagement didn't work out. And everywhere he went he took the diamond ring with him. It made it unique. It had traveled the country. When we were talking about getting engaged he asked me what kind of ring I liked. I told him I like the 3 stone rings a lot. The rest was up to him. When he proposed I was lucky enough to get this beauty.

The main stone in this ring was originally a round one like the other diamonds in it but Rick had them take that diamond out and replace it with his Princess cut diamond.

Again, the story behind the Princess cut diamond and the fact that it's not the original diamond makes this ring unique. We decided to not do a wedding band with it for 2 reasons. First, we're not rich. Second, it looks pretty just the way it is.

One of my favorite things about the ring is the "PS" you see in this picture. "PS" stands for Passion Stone, it's the type of ring style it is. The two tiny diamonds have now been replaced with our birthstones.

I don't give Rick enough credit. Like right now I'm blogging and eating cookies and he's on hour 13 of his 16 hour shift. He's been working a few doubles a week so we can get out of debt fast and in case I have to quit my job when I do my externship.

What would I do without him?